Articles

April Fools Day

Composed by Adnan Khalid (Darul Uloom
London Student)

As April draws near, non believers around the globe celebrate a
holiday on the first of the month known as April Fool’s Day.
The traditional practice of this day is to play some sort of practical
joke on someone and make him the “April Fool”.

Pranks performed on this day range form the simple, (such as saying,
“your shoes are untied!”) to the elaborate. Whatever
the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim,
“April fool!”

The history of April Fool’s Day is not totally clear. No
exact date can be found pinpointing the first official celebration
of the holiday. There are, however, many narrations regarding the
reason the tradition is practiced. One narration states that it
is a day the Spanish celebrate in remembrance of the day that they
defeated the Muslims and swept them from power in lower Spain. According
to this narration, the Christian army could not conquer the Muslims
there and sent spies to discover why. They discovered that the Muslims
were strong on faith and obedient to Allah. The tradition goes on
saying that the Christians sent in alcohol and tobacco, which the
Muslims used and became the means in which they lost their obedience
to Allah. Then the Christian army invaded lower Spain and conquered
the Muslims on the first of April and began celebrating April Fool’s
Day ever since. As this story has been circulating between our Muslim
brothers strengthening their beliefs about the history of this day
I deemed it appropriate to clarify a few points about the history
of April Fool’s Day. The truth of the matter is that this
story is not true in many aspects.

First, let us confirm the historic fact that Muslim rule in Spain
ended on the 12th of January in the Christian year of 1492 A.D.
April Fool’s Day was not heard of until over sixty years later.
The most authentic reports according to Christian historical books
such as Encyclopedia Britannica as well as many others trace the
roots of the holiday back to 16th century France. Prior to the year
1582, the new year was celebrated for eight days, starting with
the 25th of March. The celebration culminated on April 1st. With
the reform of the Christian calendar under King Charles IX, through
the influence of Pope Gregory, the Gregorian calendar was introduced,
and New Years Day was moved to the first of January. However, due
to lack of communications in those days, many people did not receive
the news for several years. Others, the most obstinate crowd, refused
to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the New Year
on April 1. These backward people were classified as “fool”
by the general public and were often subject to some ridicule. Hence,
the tradition of April Fool’s Day began.

Second, we should acknowledge the fact that tobacco products were
not even invented until after the time of the fall of Muslims in
Spain. According to the State College in Framingham, they quote
that smoking of any kind did not exist in Spain until after it was
brought back from the New World in the times after King Ferdinand
of Spain had come to power. Tobacco use did not become widespread
until the 19th century.(Introduction to human biology, Framingham
State College, Roger N. Morrissette, Ph.D.)

So regarding the rumor claiming that April Fool’s Day is
a celebration of the take over of Muslim Spain, it is clear the
whole thing is a fabricated story. It is in fact a lie made by the
nonbelievers to mislead Muslims and in realty create a “Muslims
Fool Day”! True Muslims would never propagate lies especially
when it comes to the history of Islam. It is our duty to educate
our brothers on these kinds of topics.

Regardless of the history of April Fool’s Day or not, there
still isn’t any sort of a reason for a Muslim to practice
such a foolish tradition. It is a in reality a holiday created by
the enemies of Allah to prove how really foolish they are by denying
the truth revealed to the world through the Holy Prophet (peace
be upon him). As Muslims it is our job to avoid imitating the nonbelievers
in all aspects of life and this includes celebration of their holidays.
No matter how hard you try to please them you will always fail unless
you become one of them. And to become one of them is to earn Allah’s
wrath. And to earn Allah’s wrath is to condemn oneself. Allah
says in the Qur’an, “And never will the Jews nor the
Christians be pleased with you until you follow their millat (traditions,
ways, religion, etc.).”(Chapter 2, verse 122)

Dear readers! Know that Islam is the only religion, which is free
from faults and innovations. Such an easy religion to follow is
Islam. The Prophet said, “Indeed religion is easy”(Bukhari).
Allah just asks that we obey Him and His messenger sallalahu alaihi
wasallam. Yet we try to go out of our ways to be obedient to those
cursed people who have shown disobedience to Allah. What a pity
for him who chooses to enjoy the pleasures of the world over the
pleasures of the hereafter. By imitating the nonbelievers, all we
do is show people that we are one of them and that they are beloved
to us as we to them. The Holy Prophet said, “ A person will
be raised on the Day of Judgment with whom he loves.” So whom
do we prefer to be raised with, the Noble Prophet sallalahu alaihi
wasallam and his companions or the celebrators of April Fool’s
Day? The answer is obvious to all. In this age of innumerous trails
and tribulations, we must try our hardest to stay steadfast on the
straight path shown to us by our Beloved Prophet sallalahu alaihi
wasallam, which is the only path with guaranteed success from Allah.
In the long run, he will be successful who avoids such useless practices
that are nothing more then a waste of time. May Allah keep us pure
from such deceptions and avoid making us the “April Fool”.
Ameen.